


Still a Drama Queen

by EBDaydreamer



Series: AU August [9]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Episode: s10e01 The Pilot, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 16:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12040029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EBDaydreamer/pseuds/EBDaydreamer
Summary: Rose Tyler has been happily married to the Doctor for millennia, but all their adventuring has come to an abrupt halt with the 'execution' of Missy. Now, they've been stuck at a university on Earth, away from the stars and their adventures, but the Doctor's new pupil gives Rose something new: hope.





	Still a Drama Queen

**Author's Note:**

> Late for AU August! Shhh!

Over two thousand years, they’d been married. Two thousand years of adventure and friendship and parenthood, all ended by Missy.

Rose resented the Time Lady, but she couldn’t hate her, not when the Doctor’s relationship with her ran so deep and meant so much.

Her ears perked as the mechanical squeak of Nardole approached. What did he want n- oh, yes. The Doctor had asked a Bill Potts to come and see him. Odd, Rose had thought, a century at the university, thousands of pupils and sneaked into his lectures, and not once had he asked one of them to meet him in the office. Though once he explained his intentions to tutor her, Rose teased that he needed someone new to show off to.

As the door opened, Rose sighed, placing her book back on the shelf, turning to meet her husband’s new pupil.

*

‘Well, this is weird,’ thought Bill, as the man who led her to the office stumbled away. The professor who everyone knew as ‘The Doctor’ had asked her - a canteen worker - to his office. And what a strange office it was. The room was littered with unusual bits and bobs. A giant police box stood proud in the corner. A pen pot contained stick-like things that couldn’t possibly be pens. The desk was completely covered in photos. One had a young, smiling blonde, probably in her early twenties. Another was a big group photo with several teenagers, the blonde woman again, and a man in a pinstriped suit. The next one had all different faces, except the blonde woman again, barely aged a day. Another one was full of adults, the only people she recognised was the man in the suit and the blonde yet again. Only one photo didn’t have the blonde: a black and white photo of a teenage girl with a dark pixie cut.

“You must be Bill, right?” a voice said from above, startling her.

Bill glanced at the balcony to see a woman leaning on the bannister and had to refrain from gasping. She was _beautiful_. Couldn’t be more than fifty, she seemed to have an ethereal glow about her. Her face was gently lined, laugh lines emphasised by her kind smile. She was wearing black skinny jeans and a cream jumper: a plain look that somehow seemed so elegant on her. Her brown eyes twinkled with something Bill couldn’t quite place and her blonde hair fell in natural curls just past her shoulders. It was then Bill realised: she was the woman from the pictures.

But those pictures look far too modern for her to be fifty.

It was when the woman reached the bottom of the stairs that Bill noticed she was staring… and that she’d been asked a question.

“Yeah. Bill Potts.”

The woman stuck out her hand, “Rose Tyler, the Doctor’s wife. You’re here to see him?”

“He asked me to meet him, yeah. Not sure why,” Bill confessed.

Rose smiled sympathetically, “Most of what he does doesn’t mak-”

She was cut off by an electric guitar ripping apart the silence.

Rose rolled her eyes and muttered, “Beethoven again.” She knocked on the right-hand door and yelled, “Bill’s here, dear.”

Rose pulled out a tablet and sat on the window ledge as the Doctor poked his head out the door, sunglasses perched on his face.

*

As her husband disappeared again, Rose heard the familiar sound of the sonic whirring followed by feedback.

_Typical_ , Rose thought loudly over the bond, _has an appointment due yet decides to play rock star again._

_Oi!_  came the reply. Rose chuckled and opened up her emails to find several lengthy letters from the kids.

“Potts?”

“Yeah?”

“Bill Potts?”

“You wanted to see me?”

The Doctor emerged from behind the door and shuffled some papers. “Er, you’re not a student at this university.”

“Nah, I work in the canteen,” Bill replied easily.

“Yeah but you come to my lectures,” he accused.

“No I don’t. I never do that,” she denied, even though she had to have known she’d been caught. Rose smiled to herself: exactly what she would’ve done.

“I’ve seen you.”

“Love your lectures. They’re totally awesome.”

_Oh, I like her_ , Rose thought with a suggestive smirk.

The Doctor gave her a mental eye roll,  _You know we can’t, love._

“Why’d you come to my lectures when you’re not a student?”

“Ok,” Bill took a deep breath, and Rose felt a rant coming on, “so my first day here, in the canteen, I was on chips. There was this girl. Student. Beautiful. Like a model, only with talking and thinking. She looked at you and you perved. Every time, automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion. So I gave her extra chips. Every time, extra chips. Like a reward for all the perversion. Every day, got myself on chips, rewarded her. Then finally, finally, she looked at me, like she'd noticed, actually noticed, all the extra chips. Do you know what I realised? She was fat. I'd fatted her. But that's life, innit? Beauty or chips. I like chips. So did she. So that’s ok.”

“Completely agree,” Rose butted in. “Always chose chips over anything.”

“As much as I agree, how does that in any way explain why you keep coming to my lectures?” he asked, moving to stand by the desk.

Bill stiffened, probably thinking over what she’d just said, “Yeah, it doesn't really, does it? I was hoping something would develop.” She looked around, clearly hoping for a distraction. “What's that? A police telephone box?”

“Yeah,” the Doctor moved to stand by the TARDIS, and they both felt her mournful tug, begging them to take her out.

“Did you build it from a kit?”

The Doctor looked almost offended and Rose had to stifle a laugh, “No, it came like that!”

“Then how did you get it in here? The door's too small and so are the windows,” Bill pointed out. Observant, and probably very nosy.

“I had the window and a part of the wall taken out and it was lifted in.”

“What, with a crane?”

“Yeah, with a crane. It's heavier than it looks. Why do you keep coming to my lectures?” He brushed off the conversation, but Rose felt his sorrow, linked so closely with her own, as she watched him take his seat.

“Because I like them,” she replied as if it were obvious (which it was). “Everybody likes them. They're amazing.” She shrugged, “Why me?”

“Why you what?”

“Well, plenty of people come to your lectures that aren't supposed to. Why pick on me?”

“Well, I noticed you.”  _Not answer enough, dear. I was right: showing off._

“Yeah, but why?” Bill continued questioning.

The Doctor wrung his hands, gazing at the picture of Susan on his desk. “Well, most people when don' t understand something, they frown. You,” he pointed at her and paused for the dramatic effect he adored so much, “smile.”

“I'll tell you what I don't understand,” Bill began. “You've been lecturing here for a long time. Like, fifty years, some people say. Nabeela in the office says over seventy. Except for the random three-year disappearance in 2006.”

“Family matters,” Rose answered automatically.

The Doctor ignored that comment. “Yeah, and you're thinking, 'Well, he doesn't look old enough'.”

“No.” The Doctor’s face fell and this time Rose couldn’t help but giggle. D _on’t worry, love. The silver fox definitely works for me._

“I'm wondering what you're supposed to be lecturing on. It's like the university let you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics. You talked about poetry.”

“Poetry, physics, same thing,” he shrugged.

“How is it the same?”

“Because of the rhymes. What are you doing at this university?” he diverted again.

“I always wanted to come here,” she stated plainly.

“Yeah, to serve chips?”

_Rude._

Bill cocked her head to the door. “So anyway, am I nearly done?”

“Do you want to be?”

“See ya.” She got to her feet, clearly thinking she was.

‘Oh how wrong you are,’ Rose thought to herself.

The Doctor didn’t watch her leave, picking papers up off his desk. “You ever get less than a first, then it's over,” he called casually.

Bill halted. “You what?”

“A first. Every time, or I stop immediately.”

“Stop what?”

“Being your personal tutor.,” he grinned.  _Drama queen_ , Rose chided.

“But I'm not a student,” Bill was definitely surprised, exactly what her stupid husband was going for. “I'm not part of the university. I never even applied.”

“We'll sort all that out later,” he announced, rushing over to the door, grin firm on his face.

“You kinda have to sort that out earlier.”

“Leave it with me,” he promised. “I'm assuming that it's a yes.”

Bill just blinked for a moment, before looking over to Rose to see if he was serious. Rose sent her a warm smile to reassure to the poor girl. Seemingly convinced, she gasped out, “Yes.”

“I'll see you at 6pm every weekday. I don't care who's dying, never, ever be late. I'm very particular about time.”

Rose rolled her eyes, “Ignore him, he’s a bit of a drama queen. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“Ok,” Bill beamed and made to leave, but soon turned back. “Oh, er. People just call you the Doctor? What do I call you? Doctor Tyler?”

“No. The Doctor.”

“But Doctor's not a name. I can't just call you Doctor. Doctor what?”

The Doctor stared at her, before facing Rose. “Roooose, she didn’t do the thing!” he whined.

Rose chuckled. As much as this body pretended he was more grown-up, he was still just a child at heart. “I know, love. I’m sorry. Humans aren’t a hive mind.”

As Bill left the couple, Rose heard the Doctor grumble, “Not at this point in history anyway.”


End file.
